Saturday, June 14, 2008

(For this blog's comment on the Lisbon Constitution/Treaty 'Vote No' result, click here.)

WOLFE TONE COMMEMORATION , SUNDAY JUNE 15, 2008.

Republican Sinn Féin at the grave of Wolfe Tone.

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45pm on the day , and return to Dublin at 5.30PM. The main oration will be delivered by Dan Hoban, Mayo .

The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece (article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog three years ago .
" From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection between Great Britain and Ireland as the curse of the Irish nation , and felt convinced that , while it lasted , this country could never be free nor happy . My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year , and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes . In consequence , I was determined to employ all the powers which my individual efforts could move , in order to separate the two countries .
That Ireland was not able of herself to throw off the yoke , I knew ; I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found . In honourable poverty I rejected offers which , to a man in my circumstances , might be considered highly advantageous . I remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country , and sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions of my countrymen. "
-Theobald Wolfe Tone.






Friday, June 13, 2008

LISBON CONSTITUTION/TREATY DEFEATED BY THE MAJORITY OF THOSE THAT VOTED IN THE IRISH FREE STATE.


"There is no country in the world so much in need of unpractical people as this country of ours. With us, 'thought' is degraded by its constant association with practice. We live in the age of the overworked , and the under-educated ; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid..."
(Oscar Wilde)

Of those that voted , 53.04 per cent voted 'NO' whereas 46.96 per cent voted 'YES' . The Lisbon Constitution/Treaty has , rightly , been shot down!
Those that Brussels and Leinster House considered to be
"absolutely stupid" have , this time , somehow found the courage to say enough is enough ! The well-suited , well-manicured , over-paid , spoilt and non-productive political leeches in Brussels and Leinster House that depend on working people to maintain that lifestyle for them have , this time, been given the finger by those they have forced to be " overworked " and "under-educated". Irish Republicans played their part in securing this victory for common sense - tens of thousands of 'VOTE NO!' leaflets and posters were used by republican activists , public meetings were held ,internet marketing and bulk text messaging was used and , in some areas , cars were laid-on to take supporters to the polling station , and back. Please excuse this wee blog for being rude , but it feels absolutely fantastic to be able to shout 'UP YOURS!' to those bastardised political wasters who will now have to 'fight' that little bit harder to secure a soft political position for themselves with their masters in Brussels. May all you perma-tanned , useless political free-loaders die roaring , and may this political result be the beginning of your downfall. You are a 'luxury' that we cannot afford , living a lifestyle that we cannot afford to support . Hopefully , this is a first step in telling you to f**k off and earn your own keep. And we sincerely hope that those you attempted to prostitute yourself , and us , to , in Brussels , give you at the very least a good slapping around for letting them down! It's party time.... ;-)
Sharon.






Wednesday, June 11, 2008

A Lisbon ballot paper with a 'NO' vote registered.

The Lisbon Constitution/Treaty lays the basis for the further creation of a European 'super state' -already 80 per cent of domestic law in this corrupt little statelet is subservient to EU laws and directives and , if passed, this Constitution/Treaty will introduce a clause which gives the EU Council of Ministers the 'right' to extend its powers without the need for a further treaty , removing the preferred requirement for any future extension of EU power to be voted on by the electorate in this State .
VOTE NO TO THE LISBON CONSTITUTION/TREATY ON 12th JUNE 2008 !




THE IRA : the new IRA is younger , more radical and has seen little of life other than violence.
By Ed Moloney.
From 'Magill' magazine, September 1980.


At 9.30 on the morning of Saturday 19th April 1980 a car containing five armed and masked men pulled up outside the home of a farmer not far from the South Armagh village of Crossmaglen . The men got out of the car and went into the house where the farmer and his family were just finishing breakfast . They demanded and got the keys to his tipper lorry parked outside and while two of the men stayed with the farmer's family the other three drove the lorry back , where they had come from , across the border .

Two miles across the southern side of the border along the windy roads of county Monaghan the lorry drove into a farmyard and stopped . The men got out and were joined by several others who had been waiting nervously for them in a number of outbuildings . Over the next two hours the farmyard was a scene of intense activity as the men screwed into position on the back of the lorry ten long mortar tubes . The tubes were then loaded with home made mortar bombs , each containing five pounds of commercial explosives packed into beer gas cylinders .

The mortars were improvised IRA devices , called 'Mark 10's' by British Army technical experts who had learned to fear them since exactly a year before when a shower of 'Mark 10's ' had devastated Newtownhamilton RUC barracks, killing a British Army soldier in the process . After the complicated firing mechanism for the mortars had been set , the lorry was driven to Caulfield Place in Newry , about 100 yards from the town's RUC station, and was parked there . Five minutes later the first of the mortars went off.......
(MORE LATER).




AN OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE RUC . RUC brutality , torture , murder and lies were brushed aside as the unionist establishment congratulated itself for the continuing existence of a paramilitary force which had maintained and safe-guarded its rule in the Occupied Six Counties of Ireland.......
From 'IRIS' magazine , July/August 1982.

In a statement taken before Brian Maguire's death, Phelim Hamill , an RUC torture victim himself , detailed this aspect of the torture : " My arms and legs were pinned down and a light-coloured towel was put over my head , obstructing my vision . The RUC tied the towel around my neck and choked me . While the towel was tied around my face a cup of water was poured down my throat and nose , giving me a drowning feeling ." After surviving this terrifying experience , Phelim Hamill spent eleven months on remand before being released . Brian Maguire was not so lucky .

Like withered leaf or side of beef
They hang you by the heels,
Then kidneys crunch with heavy punch
To tortured jiggling squeals .
Bones are bruised 'cos boots are used
To loosen up your tongue,
So men admit a little bit
When nothing they have done.

(Bobby Sands : 'The Crime of Castlereagh')

The RUC are a bigoted and sectarian force , existing today to perform the same function they were set up to perform - the defence of the Orange state . The child-killers of 1969 are the torturers of Castlereagh and the plastic bullet assassins , and any number of years on the RUC are an unchanged and unchangeable paramilitary force . Their name spells repression and death to the nationalist community .

That is why , for all the newspaper articles and editorials , and for all the middle-class prayers and council motions and , above all , for all the ambivalence and collaboration of the SDLP ('1169...' Comment - ...and the 'new' SDLP) and the Workers' Party towards them , there are not and never will be any birthday greetings to the RUC from the nationalist people.

[END of 'Sixty Years Of Repression']
(Next: 'No let up in repression' : a POW writes from Armagh Jail , 1983)



OPERATIONAL COMMENTS OF A BRITISH ARMY OFFICER.......
British Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Dewar of the Royal Green Jackets has served in Cyprus , Borneo and Malaya , as well as in the Occupied Six Irish Counties . He has written three previous books - 'Internal Security Weapons And Equipment Of The World' and 'Brushfire Wars' . The extracts reproduced here are from 'The British Army In Northern Ireland' , which was published by 'Arms and Armour Press' in 1985 . The underlined comments in this article are ours . This article reflects the operational thinking of a British military commander , more so than his political or ideological outlook.
From 'IRIS' magazine , October 1987.

It is patrolling , however , on foot or in vehicles , that actually dominates an area : the physical presence of soldiers prevents the enemy from preparing or planning an 'illegal activity' . However , the enemy would argue that the presence of foreign troops on the streets is provocative and a catalyst for their activities .

But the 'rule of law' cannot be maintained without regular visits from those upholding the 'law' - those who physically attack 'the representatives of law and order' on the streets have no defence in 'law' . The army patrols must be seen regularly on the streets to give 'confidence' to the local population and this can be achieved by foot or vehicle patrols but , in some respects, the latter have a high profile and are easier and safer to mount.

The best method of securing information and of getting to know an area is on foot . The majority of patrols in an urban area must always be on foot , which means the Company Commander must plan a matrix of vehicle and foot patrols which cover the entire Company area 24 hours a day in an irregular and unpredictable pattern , in such a way that no patrol is ever left unsupported by another patrol . Into this pattern he/she will work the odd static Observation Post , thus ensuring that all patrols in the area are mutually supported - indeed , some are 'multiple' from the outset , meaning that two or more patrols will cover a grid of side streets working in parallel in a co-ordinated manner and in radio contact . In this way they will discourage an ambush by possibly cutting off escape routes.......
(MORE LATER).







Tuesday, June 10, 2008

VOTE NO TO THE LISBON CONSTITUTION/TREATY ON THURSDAY 12 JUNE 2008!


The presence of 26-County troops in Chad , supporting a French colonial proxy war with China - who are propping-up the regime in neighbouring Sudan - over oil reserves , highlights the nature of the military "tasks" that the 26-County state will be expected to perform . Almost 100 years after the 'First World War' , is yet another generation of Irish people to be sacrificed on foreign battlefields in the interests of European capitalism and imperialism ?

The Lisbon Constitution/Treaty will enforce the December 2007 Laval-Vaxholm judgement of the EU Court of Justice , which makes it illegal for governments or trade unions to enforce pay standards higher than the minimum wage for migrant workers : how long before those same 'minimum wage standards' are applied to all workers , should the Lisbon Constitution/Treaty be approved ? In effect , the December 2007 judgement will be construed by the political business-class decision makers in Brussels to infer that trade unions will not be allowed to take industrial action where it conflicts with the provisions of goods and services , regardless of the consequences for vulnerable workers .



The document that voters are are to vote on in this State on June 12th next is a deliberate mish-mash of legal jargon consisting of over 300 pages of different and unconnected amendments to 17 previous treaties , which run to 2,800 pages ! And there is a reason why it is so : Karel de Gucht, the federalist Belgian foreign minister , stated in June 2007 - "The aim of the (Lisbon) Constitution Treaty was to be more readable ; the aim of this treaty is to be unreadable . The Constitution aimed to be clear , whereas this treaty had to be unclear . It is a success! "
These well-suited con artists admitted to the German magazine 'Der Spiegel' in September/October 2007 that €1,155 billion of their funds "simply disappeared" in 2006 , including (?) €320 million euros "that were stolen" , but they claimed that corruption is no more widespread in Brussels than anywhere else ! At present , 400 'investigations' into corruption are on-going , including 70 into the activities of Commission officials.
Yet they have the neck to ask people to hand over more control to them!
On Thursday June 12 th , 2008 , vote 'NO' to the Lisbon Constitution/Treaty and kill two birds with the one stone : let our home-grown business-suits in Leinster House know that you are not happy with the way they are mis-managing , amongst other things, the so-called 'Health Service' in this State and let their bosses in Brussels know that you are not happy with the way they are feathering their own nests with tax-payers money nor how they tried to deceive you over this treaty . VOTE NO !
More info here...
Sharon.